Inmate missing for 22 years captured in Oregon

POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN, Utah – A Utah State Prison inmate missing for 22 years was arrested Thursday in Salem after being caught allegedly using the identity of a Nebraska man.

Lyndal Ritterbush walked away from the Draper prison on April 9, 1985, while making mechanical repairs to motorized carts outside the prison’s perimeter fences, Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said.

At the time, Ritterbush was serving a prison term of five years to life for a first-degree felony conviction of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. He had been in prison for about six months when he escaped.

A Clay County, Neb., man contacted police after discovering his name had been used to obtain numerous credit cards. Police tracked the cards to Ritterbush in Oregon, Ford said.